In his commentary to Sahih Muslim, Shaykh Muhammad Taqi Usmani explains this: “Were it not for Bani Israel, meat would not decay”: Explaining this phrase he writes; “It means that People of Israel were the first to keep food and meat until it would go bad and get rotten and if it was not for the People of Israel who started this habit, people would not have kept food for so long till it goes bad. This is how al-Abi and al-Hafiz explained it in al-Fath. However; it does not mean that for the people before the People of Israel food and meat never rotted even if they saved it. But the meaning in fact is that the habit of saving the food was not common before them. For the people used to eat and feed others and nothing decayed till the People of Israel came, and they kept saving it till it would get rotten.” So the meaning actually is that these were the people of Israel who started the general practice of hoarding surplus food with them which used to rot and get wasted. Before them generally the people used to collect food only for their own selves. And when they had surplus they would share it with other people (either through charity or trade). So they were actually the people who started the general practice that lead to wasting of food. And he then quotes the report telling us when it so happened; “al-Aini narrated from Qatadah: "the Mann and Salwa used to fall upon the People of Israel, from dawn to the sunrise, like the ice falls. So they would take from it just enough for the day except Friday, when they had to gather for it and the next day (Saturday). But if they exceeded (their need), it used to get spoiled. So their saving used to cause a food waste for them and others." (Takmilah Fath al-Mulhim, Darul Ahya al-Turath al-‘Arabi Beirut 2006 vol.1 p.140) In Fat’h Al Bari by Ibn Hajar Al Asaqalani, on this hadith he says that there are two possible interpretations: After the exodus, when Bani Isra'il were in the Sinai peninsula, Allah sent down to them quails (see Qur'an 2:57), which they were ordered not to store. However, they disobeyed and stored the meat of the quails: First interpretation: As a punishment for doubting Allah's promise of regularly sending down quail (so they have no need to store it), meat became rotten when stored [under room temperature] from that point onwards. This is the opinion of Qatada ibn Al-Nu'man and Al-Qurtubi, too, among others. Second interpretation: People used to eat only fresh meat at the time, without storing it, but Banu Isra'il were the ones to store meat till it went rotten. Had they not started the habit of storing meat, no meat would not have rotted. This is the opinion of Wahb ibn Munabbih and Abu Nu'aym Al-Asfahani, too. PDF